Skater 318 With Mercury racing 400 R's, Several Firsts All Rolled Together

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Skater 318 With Mercury racing 400 R's, Several Firsts All Rolled Together

As we've been following the build of this Skater 318, we are certainly impressed with the thought, build, and the overall impressions this "First" projects.

Now that it has the final clear shot in the paint booth, it is time to show you what has been transpiring, and tell a little bit of the why.

After the last clear topcoat in the spray booth. Still drying!

Sanding out the boat for prime.

Prime in the booth.

Sand Again!

Painting the final design.

An awesome looking boat. Ready for polish and buff before clear!

After polish, buff, clear, polish, buff, and final clear! Wow!!!!

Some of the firsts for this boat:
First "wide-body" 30 outboard cat built by Skater.
First Skater outboard cat to be specifically built for the heavier, and more powerful, Mercury Racing 400R's.
First cat the owner will ever have owned!

The tunnel on this boat is 63 inches wide, and the running surface is one foot longer than the current Skater 30. That modification to the design is to handle the heavier weight of the 400R engines, but it also happens to be the maximum tunnel width allowed in the Offshore Stock Outboard Catamaran classes. The 63" tunnel width is a full 10" wider than the current Skater 30.

We cannot wait to see how this boat performs with the heavier engines. The Verado 400R is a whopping 668 lbs dry, where as the Optimax 300XS is 505 lbs dry.

We will continue to keep you up to date as this beauty is completed, so check in every now and then to see how it is coming along. Rigging and testing, especially testing, should be fun for the Skater team.